Gyula Zsengellér (27 December 1915 – 29 March 1999) was a Hungarian
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
er who played as a
striker
Striker or The Strikers may refer to:
People
*A participant in a strike action
*A participant in a hunger strike
*Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant
*Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America
People wi ...
. A legend of
Újpest FC, he is most famous for his part in taking the
Hungarian national team
The Hungary national football team ( hu, magyar labdarúgó-válogatott) represents Hungary in men's international football and is controlled by the Hungarian Football Federation. The team has made 9 appearances in the FIFA World Cup and 4 app ...
to the
1938 World Cup
The 1938 FIFA World Cup was the third edition of the World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams and was held in France from 4 June until 19 June 1938. Italy defended its title in the final, beat ...
Final. He was that tournament's second-highest scorer, behind
Leonidas of
Brazil.
His first international cap came on 2 December 1936, when Hungary lost 6–2 against
England. In total, he gained 39 caps for his country, scoring 33 goals. This makes him the eighth-highest goalscorer of all-time for the Hungarian national side.
Zsengellér also played 325 games in the Hungarian league and scored 387 goals between 1935 and 1947, making him the
third-highest goalscorer of all-time in the Hungarian league. He began his career at
Salgótarjáni TC, then moving to
Újpest FC in 1936. Zsengellér spent 11 years serving Újpest, when in 1947 he joined Italian side
A.S. Roma. In the 1949–50 season Zsengellér played for
Ancona and he finished his career playing for Colombian
Deportivo Samarios
''Deportivo'' (Spanish, 'sporting') may refer to:
* Deportivo de La Coruña, commonly known as simply Deportivo, a Spanish football club
* Déportivo, a French rock band
* Deportivo (Mexicable), an aerial lift station in Ecatepec, Mexico
* Deport ...
between 1951 and 1952.
He was the Hungarian league's top-scorer in five seasons: 1938, 1939, 1943, 1944 and in the spring season of 1945. He was
Europe's top goalscorer in 1939 and 1945.
After his retirement, Zsengellér started a long and successful managerial career, working mainly in Italy and Cyprus. He won the
Cypriot First Division with
Pezoporikos Larnaca in 1954 and the
Cypriot Cup with
APOEL FC in 1976. He died in 1999 aged 83.
IFFHS named Zsengellér the 7th most successful Top Division Goal Scorer of all time.
Career statistics
See also
*
List of men's footballers with 500 or more goals
References
External links
IFFHS link
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zsengeller, Gyula
1915 births
1999 deaths
Hungarian people of German descent
Hungarian footballers
Serie A players
CategorÃa Primera A players
Újpest FC players
A.S. Roma players
A.C. Ancona players
Unión Magdalena footballers
Anorthosis Famagusta F.C. managers
Expatriate football managers in Cyprus
Expatriate footballers in Italy
Expatriate footballers in Colombia
1938 FIFA World Cup players
Hungary international footballers
Hungarian expatriate footballers
Hungarian expatriate sportspeople in Italy
APOEL FC managers
Apollon Pontou FC managers
Cyprus national football team managers
Hungarian football managers
Hungarian expatriate football managers
Association football forwards
Nea Salamis Famagusta FC managers
APOP Paphos FC managers
Pezoporikos Larnaca FC managers
Hungarian expatriate sportspeople in Colombia
Hungarian expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus
Hungarian expatriate sportspeople in Greece
People from Cegléd
Sportspeople from Pest County